I’m still going to disagree. Anything Madiot yells or any pep talk he gives in the team bus isn’t going to make any difference at all on a 5 hour stage with a mountain climb at the end. No words are going to make David Gaudu climb with Pogacar.
Psychology and mindset surely make a difference but I think this comes from the long game and overall team atmosphere. Soldiers are probably different because you need them to believe in the mission and if they don’t, they aren’t going to bust their asses for their leader.
Finished it up the other day. Great series - really enjoyed watching it. Looking forward to next years already and has me excited for the tour to start again.
Additionally taking the time to listen to Unchained: Binge Podcast from the Escape Collective has been great as well. They provide additional perspectives and thoughts to each episode- just a great group to listen to.
Docudrama - that’s the term I’d use to describe this. It’s not a reality show (which tend to be completely fake/manufactured) and I don’t think it’s really a documentary either (close, but too heavily edited?)
We’re done with the series. The wife watched as well. I watch the Tour and an assortment of XC, DH, spring classics, but definitely not the whole calendar. Wife watches sporadically, usually when I’m watching. She is a cyclist. We both enjoyed it, also enjoyed DtS, so no surprise there.
Thoughts in general…
last year’s Tour was just about perfect for a series - the Jumbo vs Pogacar story played out very well when it happened and converts to drama really well.
production was high-quality, no surprise there given DtS
I didn’t care that Cav wasn’t mentioned, even though I do hope he breaks the record this year
Lots of French language with subtitles - bit of a bummer from a “bring cycling to the US” perspective, but didn’t bother me personally
Missed Cort coverage, missed the Pogacar crash, but I guess they only have so much time
Pogacar seems like a nice guy - brutal competitor, but he always seems to go shake hands with stage winners, always smiling when he’s warming up/cooling down, etc.
Could have done without so many replays of the Jakobsen crash at TofP
Not sure what the show will do for the market in the US. Cycling as a whole is a LOOOOOONG season with lots of events (vs F1, or US football, or …). And from event to event (even within a grand tour), the daily favorite changes. The fact that WvA is (arguably) the best of his generation but will never win a grand tour will confuse non-cyclists. Heck, I was chatting with a mountain biking friend last night and he made a comment about that - “too many mountains, how can it be the premier event when a rider like Wout can’t win?”
I was disappointed with the lack of Cort coverage as well — seemed like such an on-brand story for EF too haha, “hey this guy is gonna be KOM in his home country and btw he’s got a great mustache, plot twist it’s Denmark and flat as a pancake.”
The topic of motivational speakers and how to motivate one person from the next is actually fascinating to me. Some people read a self help book and get tons of motivation from it. Others read the exact same book and see a bunch of over-exaggerated fluff. Some people really respond well to being yelled at, being told they’re crap if they can’t hold on for one more interval, etc. Others hear the screaming and think “yeah, I’m on the edge, suffering, doing all I can to hold on, and I don’t really need you screaming in my ear drums”.
I was in the Marine Corps, and it took me less than a week to realize that no matter how hard we worked or how fast we moved, someone was always going to come in last and we were going to end up being flogged for it. Other people would literally threaten the other recruits for being too slow thinking if that one guy had just been a bit faster we’d have had ice cream instead of sand pits. If I was a pro, the second the screaming started, my earphone would “accidentally” fall out.
It’s really a totally individual thing and everyone responds to different motivators.
I agree…I never, ever respond well to that sort of thing. Anyone starts screaming, ESPECIALLY about sports, and I just smile, chuckle, and marvel at what a horrible person they are …
That said…motivation is real. I’m no director sportif…but eben at the highest level…I’d have to believe the most important thing you can do is get an extra 10, 20, 60 seconds out of guys on the limit at critical points in the race. Strategy is important…but really the guys on the race will have a better vantage point of what move they can go with and which they cant.
This confuses cyclists as well (this one anyway). It’s too convoluted…you cant be the best of a generation if you cant win. I know what you’re getting at…but if you’re physically incapable of winning a race…are you really a generational talent?
It’s not like Barkeley or Hakeem in basketball…where you can say they have all the tools, just not the teammates to win championships. Wout just cant win…
There are essentially two sides to professional road bike racing that run simultaneously. One side is the Grand Tours, which is what you’re thinking of. The other side is One Day races. He’s won MANY of the biggest one day races. He’s one of the best in the world at it…maybe even THE best. It’s as iconic as winning the GT’s to the cycling world, it’s just not what you see on TV in the US.
No no I’m not. But I think if you asked 100 US non cyclists if they could name a spring classic, the whole group couldnt come up with one. Whereas I bet each of the 100 has heard of the Tour de France.
Just looking at it from the perspective of someone who doesnt follow cycling. So…Wout is a good road cyclist if we get rid of 20 of 21 stages, and remove all the mountains?
He’s won a ton - 40+ wins over his career so far. Including… 3 World Championships. 8 National Championships. 8 classics wins; 1 of which was a monument. But, he probably won’t win a grand tour.
Put in other terms… In F1, nearly half the champions (14 of 35?) have never won at Monaco. Clark, Mansell, Fittipaldi, Andretti, Villeneuve. Would anybody claim they weren’t some of the best of their generations because of one missing podium?
